A STROLL, A RAMBLE, A TRUDGE..gardening in Vermont..an old gardener looking for new tricks while moving from the purely floral to jabbing at sustainability via vegetables and fruits.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

end of's and were they thinking what I've been thinking

At the end of some things now. Basil has it's finale. Still smells great..the last hurrah to fresh pesto for the season. Hurrah!And putting seed away...which means drying and separating seed from chaff..here's where I got to wondering if 'they', (by they I mean the thousands of generations before me of mostly women performing some version of the same task), thought as I did while seed cleaning. My crude, no machines except me, method requires alot of shaking and blowing with assistance from the prevailing winds. It's sorta fun, sometimes meditative and occasionally induces one to involuntarily inhale clouds of stuff should you get distracted or the wind gets the rascal in her.My seed harvest is pretty measly this year, not much atall in the way of veggies but I've managed a few odds and ends and already am mentally cheerleading my way into next year with some 'the odds must be with me' calculations. Calculations means hope. Ha!But hey, autumn provides the most scenic backdrop for deep thinking. Double HA!

3 comments:

Ooo! Let's talk about your pumpkins! Or rather squash as they seem to be rather interesting.

And yeah, jumping into the pond of seed-saving is best done incrementally. Believe me you still have lots of time to get completely buried and obsessed with it, should that help you.

And and: I love that little stone wall. You are going to laugh but stones are incredibly hard to find out here in the midwest. To line my pond, a tiny fish pond, would set me back $250 or so. Yeah go ahead and laugh! So when I see all your New England rocks I just sigh. (That said I don't have any getting in the way of gardening either.)

The funnest part of separating the seed from the chaff is that you will have dust up your nose for days to come...I know I always do.:)

In looking at the beautiful pond/bog picture I was wondering if you had any cranberries growing wild in your area? We hope to get out this week and hunt for a few in our own little North Idaho bog. You take the best pictures!

hey guys!El, the squash are rouge vif d'etampe, jarrahdale, rumboF1, and the little guy is also an F1 kabocha type called 'Sunshine'..I have tried to steer clear of any seeds I cannot save but I gotta tell you that little 'sunshine' tastes unbelievably good..the solo pumpkin is a no name or, as I call them, Joe Blow variety..AND, you may come anytime and take away as many stones as you desire!

Mike, both you and El are encouraging me to expand my scope and involve myself in some foraging. Not sure about wild cranberries..last time I was able to identify wild crans was on an October trip through Nova Scotia where I observed many folk harvesting.